Revolution in World Missions

Revolution in World Missions by K.P. Yohannan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an interesting book. The author, KP Yohannan, makes a case that missions should be done by people from that country, especially in Asia. He states often, when Westerners go to Asia that they have to try to make Asia like America with customs and traditions instead of teaching all Biblical concepts.

I have added quotes that made me stop and think. I may not agree with all of them however I (we) should consider his thoughts.

For some reason, Americans seemed to have a need to surround themselves with noise all the time. [Isn’t this true? Even during prayer time in our churches often we have background music playing.]

They [western churches] usually took an offering and presented me with a check for what seemed like a great amount of money. Then with their usual hospitality, they invited me to eat with the leaders following the meeting. To my horror, the food and “fellowship” frequently cost more money than the money they had just given to missions. And I was amazed to find that American families routinely eat enough meat at one meal to feed an Asian family for a week. No one ever seemed to notice this but me, and slowly I realized they just had not heard the meaning of my message. They were simply incapable of understanding the enormous needs overseas.

The $74 million spent on one new building in the United States could build nearly 7,000 average-sized churches in India. The same $74 million would be enough to guarantee that the Good News of Jesus Christ could be proclaimed to a whole Indian state – or even some of the smaller countries of Asia.

There is such an emphasis on church buildings in the United States that we sometimes forget that the Church is the people – not the place where people meet.

Religion, I discovered, is a multi-billion dollar business in the United States. Entering churches, I was astonished at the carpeting, furnishings, air-conditioning and ornamentation. Many churches have gymnasiums and fellowships that cater to a busy schedule of activities having little or nothing to do with Christ. The orchestras, choirs, “special” music – and sometimes even the preaching – seemed to me more like entertainment than worship.

Social concern is a natural fruit of the Gospel. But to put it first is to put the cart before the horse; and from experience, we have seen it fail in India for more than 200 years. It was an attempt to exclusively concentrate on people’s obvious needs.

God changes the heart and spirit, the physical changes also. If you want to meet the needs of the poor in this world, there is no better place to start than by preaching the Gospel. If has done more to lift up the downtrodden, the hungry and the needy than all the social programs ever imagined by secular humanists.

However, this does not mean that we must not be involved in compassion-type ministries that reach out to the poor, needy and hurting people all around us.

In Matthew 22:38-40, Jesus clearly marked the Christian’s social responsibility when He said that loving God is the first and greatest commandment and “the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” All the Law and Prophets are summed up in both – loving God and loving others. It was not one or the other – but again both, for the glory of God.

C.S. Lewis, that great British defender of the faith, wrote, “There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this [hell]. I would pay any price to be able to say truthfully, ‘All will be saved.’” But Lewis, like us, realized that was neither truthful nor within his power to change.


KP Yohannan is the founder of Gospel for Asia. It would be worth checking out their website . Also, there was a lawsuit against the organization that might be worth checking out. Here is the response about the lawsuit from Yohannan. And here is a wikipedia article about the lawsuit. I will continue to pray that a nation-wide revival will break out in India.

If you like missions then you will enjoy this book!

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Tramp for the Lord

Tramp for the Lord by Corrie ten Boom
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Corrie Ten Boom and her family were an amazing people. The hide Jews in their home until the were caught and were send to a concentration camp, Ravensbruck. This is where her sister dies. Corrie was eventually released from this prison and spent the rest of her life preaching the gospel.

Please find below several quotes from the book.

My life is but a weaving, between my God and me,
I do not choose the colors, He worketh steadily,
Oftimes He weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside.
Not till the loom is silent, and shuttles cease to fly,
Will God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why.
Will God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful in the skillful Weaver’s hand,
As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned. ~Anonymous

Although the threads of my life have often seemed knotted, I know, by faith, that on the other side of the embroidery there is a crown. ~Corrie Ten Boom

What I spent, I had; what I saved, I lost; what I gave, I have. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

. . . the deepest darkness is outshone by the light of Jesus. ~Corrie Ten Boom

God does not fill with His Holy Spirit those who believe in the fullness of the Spirit, or those who desire Him, but those who obey Him. ~Corrie Ten Boom

Down in the human heart, crush’d by the tempter,
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore;
Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness
Chords that were broken will vibrate once more. ~Franny J. Crosby

Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. ~Corrie Ten Boom

Someone once asked my opinion of the missionaries in a certain country. My answer was, “They have given all, but they have not taken all. They have given homeland, time, money, luxury, and more; but they have not taken all of the boundless resources of God’s promises. ~Corrie Ten Boom

Our fight is not against a physical army, a political party, an atheistic organization – or anything like that. Our fight is against organizations and powers that are spiritual. ~Corrie Ten Boom

You see, you never touch so much the ocean of God’s love as when you love your enemies. ~Corrie Ten Boom

O love of God, how deep and great,
Far deeper than man’s deepest hate. ~Corrie Ten Boom

I would much rather be the trusting child of a rich Father, than a beggar at the door of worldly men. ~Corrie Ten Boom

The valley of the shadow of death holds no darkness for the child of God. There must be light, else there could be no shadow. Jesus is the Light. He has overcome death. ~Dwight Moody

To travel through the desert with others, to suffer thirst, to find a spring, to drink of it, and not tell the others that they may be spared is exactly the same as enjoying Christ and not telling others about Him. ~Corrie Ten Boom

Then I picked up my Bible and said, “It is the same with this Book. If you try to analyze it as a book of science or even a book of theology, you cannot be nourished by it. Like chocolate, it is to be eaten and enjoyed, not picked apart bit by bit.” ~Corrie Ten Boom

“When I was a little girl,” I said, “I want to my father and said, “Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus Christ.” “Tell me,” Father said, “when you take a train trip from Haarlem to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the ticket? “That is right,” my father said, “and so it is with God’s strength. Our wise Father in heaven knows when you are going to need things too. Today you do not need the strength to be a martyr; but as soon as you are called upon for the honor of facing death for Jesus, He will supply the strength you need – just in time.” ~Corrie Ten Boom

There’s a land that is fairer than day,
And by faith we can see it afar.
For the Father waits over the way,
To prepare us a dwelling place there.
In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore,
In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore. ~Sanford Fillmore Bennett

“You are not called to convince anyone,” he said. “You are simply called to be an open channel for the Spirit of God to flow through. You can never be anything else, even though you may think so at times. Follow the pathway of obedience, let the Word of God do its own work, and you will be used by God far beyond your own powers.” ~Corrie Ten Boom

Happiness is not dependent on happenings, but on relationship in the happenings. ~Corrie Ten Boom

God does not take away from us. He might ask us to turn our backs on something, or someone, we should not have. God never takes away, however; God gives. If I reach out and take someone for myself and the Lord steps in between, that does not mean God takes. Rather it means He is protecting us from someone we should not have because He has a far greater purpose for our lives. ~Corrie Ten Boom

When she enters the beautiful city
And the saved all around her appear,
Many people around will tell her:
It was you that invited me here. ~Author Unknown

All believers will enjoy and be challenged by this book!

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Charter Schools and Their Enemies

Charter Schools and Their Enemies by Thomas Sowell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I so much enjoy reading Thomas Sowell. In this book he explains the success of the charter schools in America and why a lot of traditional public schools dislike them. Below are quotes from this outstanding book. The first section explains what a charter is and the second section explains why some public educators of traditional schools are against charter schools. As always he includes many facts and stats to back up his words.

Public charter schools are public schools not created by the existing government education authorities, but by some private groups who gain government approval by meeting various preconditions set by authorizing agencies. These agencies issue charters enabling these schools to operate as public schools eligible for taxpayer money and to enroll public school students who apply. By allowing more autonomy and flexibility in public charter schools than the more tightly controlled traditional public schools, it was hoped that new educational policies and practices that emerge from this experiment might produce some better educational results. In that case, traditional public schools would have these new policies and practices available to use if they chose to, thereby benefitting the much larger number of students in the traditional public school sector. If, however, a charter school has educational outcomes that fail to satisfy the authorities, those authorities can revoke its charter and end its access to taxpayer money and public school students.
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What reason can there be to be hostile to successful charter schools? Actually, there are millions of reasons - namely, millions of dollars. The 50,000-plus students on waiting lists for admission to charter schools in New York City, where per-pupil expenditures average more than $20,000 a year, represent more than a billion dollars a year that could be lost by the traditional public school system in New York City alone, if all the students on those waiting lists were able to get into charter schools. And that is just the initial financial loss in one city during one year.

Substantial declines in the number of students remaining in traditional public schools would also mean fewer teachers employed there, and correspondingly declining union dues, since most charter school teachers do not belong to a teachers union. The sums of money involved in union dues nationwide are billions of dollars.

Schools of education would likewise be affected negatively, if many more students were able to transfer out of traditional public schools, where degrees in education are important for advancement in a teaching career, and go into charter schools, where those degrees mean far less than a teacher's actual performance in educating students.

Although charter schools are a small part of the education sector-educating less than 10 percent of the students in kindergarten through high school nationwide-the threat that they represent to a whole way of life in the much larger traditional public school system is out of proportion to their current size.

Charter schools' rate of growth, over their relatively brief existence since the 1990s, has been much higher than that in the traditional public school sector. Over the period from 2001 to 2016, enrollment in traditional public schools rose 1 percent, while enrollment in public charter schools rose 571 percent. Moreover, the concentration of charter schools in low-income minority neighborhoods across the country has made them a far larger presence in those communities, with the net result that most charter school students nationwide are either black or Hispanic. Most important of all, the abysmal educational outcomes that have long been the norm in such communities have now been highlighted in the glare of disproportionately better outcomes in many charter schools in those same communities.

I hope that gives you a taste for this excellent book. If you enjoy reading truths about education then you will enjoy this book.

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The Letter Keeper

The Letter Keeper by Charles Martin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Charles Martin is one of my favorite authors. This book, The Letter Keeper is the second in the series "A Murphy Shepherd Novel." The first book is titled The Water Keeper. Both books involved the sex-slave trade. Martin does a fantastic job revealing the horrific details but showing how the victims can be redeemed and live a life that is precious to the world. Below are just a few quotes from this awesome book:


Because the needs of the one outweigh those of the many. ~Bones (The Letter Keeper)


When light walks into a room, the darkness rolls back like a scroll. It has to. Darkness can’t stand light. And it has no counter for it. ~Bones (The Letter Keeper)

9-1 . . . 1-1 ~Bones (The Letter Keeper) (code for Ps. 91:11 “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”)


Years ago, I was working in Italy. I’d heard of Michelangelo’s David but never seen him. So I bought a ticket and walked down a long hallway lined with what look like half-finished sculptures. Huge square chunks of veined marble with forms of people being released. Works he never finished. I thought, What a shame. A waste. Then I turned a corner, and there he was. Towering. Perfection. It’s the first and only time I’ve ever looked at a piece of stone that took my breath away. The shards and slivers. No matter how long I sat and stared, I could not understand how human hands did that. How did Michelangelo know David was in there? Hidden in the rock. Spotless. No blemish. Just waiting for the sculptor’s hands to fling wide the prison doors.

Only one other time in my life have I felt this way. And the source of that awe you now hold in your hands.

From the moment we’re born, life chips away at us. With every hammer stroke, we watch in horror as the pieces that once made us fall to the ground. Soon we stand amid the rubble. The fragments. And we think to ourselves, I need that. I can’t leave that here. It was once a part of me. I’m no longer whole. I’ll never make it without it. So we spend much of our time chasing or collecting the pieces that break off, those that are stolen, or the ones we leave behind. Pretty soon, the pieces we carry are more than our hands can hold, so we throw a bag over our shoulder and stuff it full. Eventually a backpack. Before long, we’re reduced to vagabonds scouring the earth. Tormented by the fear that we’re incomplete, never whole until we find every single piece. Soon our pack is bigger than us and we’re bent over, inching along. A beast of burden walking under the crushing. Focused on what’s missing rather than what’s revealed.

But every now and then, one brave soul comes along and risks what the fearful won’t and never will. Despite the possibility of open rejection, abandonment, criticism, mockery, laughter, and shame, she lifts her pack off her shoulder, empties it before the world, and lets strangers sift through the pieces. Holding each by hand. Gemologists studying her imperfections under a magnifier. Every piece a word spoken.

When Michelangelo freed David from the cold marble cell that held him, the ground below the scaffolding was littered with pieces. Pieces that once made up the rock but not David. We know this because when finished, Michelangelo didn’t sweep all those discards into a pile only to hang them in a pack on David’s back. Why would he free him only to curse him through all eternity with carrying the marble walls of his own prison?

For reasons none of us understand, Casey has suffered the pain of the hammer and chisel, which makes her uniquely and singularly qualified to show the rest of us that we’re better off without all that deadweight. That despite the scars on the surface, there’s something beautiful, perfect, and without blemish just inches below.

Her majestic, powerful, soul-cleansing, pain-riddled, and triumphant words woven through a tapestry of sweet-soaked and tearstained pages are a masterful mosaic made up of all the broken pieces that mirror the whole. Stand too close and see only jagged rocks. But back up . . . and a giant killer emerges.

Casey Girl.

Writers are not like other people. We are the piece-keepers. We gather and guard. Holding fast throughout all eternity the discarded pieces that whisper the majesty and wonder of what is. What was. And the ever-elusive and exceedingly dangerous truth: what could be. We alone carry and share them. Carving pieces into letters that make up the words that heal us. And once they are carved, whether by hammer, chisel, or damp velvet cloth, we spill them selflessly across the earth’s table, where they walk the hurting from broken to not. From unable to breathe to laughing. From sickness of the soul to tears dripping off the corners of a smile. From lost to known and accepted in the knowing. This is the matchless and immeasurable power of our words. That’s what we do. We wander the earth. We unearth David. We slay giants. For we alone are the keepers of the letters that set us free. ~David Bishop (The Letter Keeper, this is the Forward to Casey’s book, The Resurrection of Casey Girl). Casey was rescued from sex salve trade.


1-1-8 . . . 1-7 ~Murph (The Letter Keeper) code for Ps. 119:17, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”


And while evil can inflict wounds and lay claim to the territory of the human soul, it is a squatter. A trespasser. It has no legal deed. And it has no defense against love. It can’t touch it. Not now. Not ever. No weapon ever fashioned by man can defeat it, but what we pour from our hearts shatters it on the rocks of its own making. ~Murph (The Letter Keeper)

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The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers

The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a wonderful book! I have lots of great quotes from this book That I am sharing below:

There are three ways to ultimate success:
The first way is to be king.
The second way is to be kind.
The third way is to be kind. ~Fred Rogers

It’s You I Like: It’s not the things you wear or the way you do your hair/But it’s you I like/The way you are right now, the way down deep inside you/Not the things that hide you. ~Fred Rogers

You don’t set out to be rich and famous; you set out to be helpful. ~Fred Rogers

Human kindness will always make life better. ~Maxwell King

It always helps to have people we love beside us when we have to do difficult things in life. ~Fred Rogers
Nothing can replace the influence of unconditional love in the life of a child . . . Children love to belong, they long to belong. ~Fred Rogers

And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what essential is invisible to the eye. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The real issue in life is not how many blessings we have, but what we do with our blessings. Some people have many blessings and hoard them. Some have few and give everything away. ~Fred Rogers

Attitudes aren’t taught, they’re caught. If the teacher has an attitude of enthusiasm for the subject, the student catches that whether the student is in second grade or is in graduate school. If you show them what you love, they’ll get it and they’ll want to get it. ~Margaret McFarland

All our lives, we rework the things from our childhood, lik feeling good about ourselves, managing our angry feelings, being able to say good-bye to people we love. ~Fred Rogers

You’ve made this day a special day, by just your being you. There’s no person in the whole world like you, and I like you, just the way you are. ~Fred Rogers

What do you do with the mad that you feel/When you feel so mad you could bite/When the whole wide world seems of so wrong, and nothing you do seems very right/What do you do/Do you punch a bag/Do you pound some clay or some dough/Do you round up friends for a game of tag or see how fast you can go/It’s great to be able to stop when you’ve planned the thing that’s wrong/And be able to do something else instead – and think this song/ I can stop, when I want to/Can stop when I wish/ Can stop, stop, stop anytime/And what a good feeling to feel like this/And know that the feeling is really mine/Know that there’s something deep inside that helps us become what we can/For a girl can be someday a lady, and a boy can be someday a man. ~Fred Rogers

There is a poem he [Fred Rogers] liked called “B e the Best of What You Are.” If you’re a janitor, be the best janitor – or whoever you are. Whatever you do, do it the best way you know how. ~Maxwell King

Hedda Sharapan recalls the seminal program in the week about Mistakes: “Daniel sings to Betty (Lady Aberlin), ‘Sometimes I wonder if I’m a mistake. I’m not supposed to be scared, am I. Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I shake, wondering, isn’t it true that the strong never break? I’m not like anyone else I know.’ We wept in the studio and the whole place broke out into applause.” ~Maxwell King

You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are. ~Fred Rogers

Our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is – that each of us has something that no one else has – or ever will have – something inside which is unique to all time. It’s our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness, and to provide ways of developing its expression. ~Fred Rogers

People long to be in touch with honesty. ~Fred Rogers

I think of discipline as the continual everyday process of helping a child learn self-discipline. ~Fred Rogers

Arsenio Hall ask Fred Rogers how to cope with the violence some kids experience in LA neighborhoods. Fred Rogers quoted his mother, Nancy McFeely Rogers, with advice he would repeat on several occasions on national trauma: “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” ~Maxwell King

Fred Rogers weight and part of his email address was 143 and it was a reference to the . . . letters it took to say I love you. One, I. Four, love. Three, you. ~Maxwell King

Fred saw the basic human values: integrity, respect, responsibility, fairness, and compassion, and of course his signature value, kindness. ~Maxwell King

When I was a boy, I used to think that strong meant having big muscles, great physical power; but the longer I live the more I realize that real strength has much more to do with what is not seen. Real strength has to do with helping others. ~Fred Rogers

The white spaces between words are more important than the text, because they give you time to think about what you’ve read. ~Fred Rogers

All his [Fred Rogers] career, he emphasized the importance of listening; he felt that silence is a gift, as is what he called “graceful receiving.” ~Maxwell King

One of the major goals of education must be to help students discover a greater awareness of their own unique selves, in order to increase their feeling of personal worth, responsibility, and freedom. ~Fred Rogers

You know, it may be that our planet, Earth, is the only spot in the entire Universe which can sustain human life. Of all the worlds, we may be the only one where there has ever been – or ever will be – people! That’s sort of like someone saying to you that there is only one square inch of soil on this Earth that can grow anything – and that square inch happens to be in your own back yard. You look at that soil of yours with infinitely greater appreciation when you become aware how rare and valuable it is. ~Fred Roger

He [Fred Rogers] pointed to a photo on the wall, showing Roger’s favorite sign at Rollins College, “Life is for Service” . . . . ~Maxwell King

If you are a fan of Fred Rogers than you really enjoy this book! Even though I do not agree with everything that Mr. Rogers believed I think he had a positive influence not only on children but on our world.

Here is a link to an episode of Mister Rogers Neighborhood from August 27, 1997.

Here is another link from May 1, 1969: Fred Rogers testifies before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications.

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Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American IconJohnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon

 

Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon by Greg Laurie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed reading this book about Johnny Cash. His life was a mess. He had a great opportunity to have a bigger Kingdom impact but allowed the world (flesh) to control his life too many times.

Here are a few quotes from the book:

There is more power in a mother’s hand than in a king’s scepter. ~Billy Graham

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. ~C.S. Lewis

All the things that ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of Heaven. Tantalizing glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear . . . If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world . . . Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. ~C.S. Lewis

Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting on the rat to die. ~Anne Lamott

When you forgive someone, you set a prisoner free . . . yourself! ~ Greg Laurie

I would recommend this book to anyone who would like insight to Johnny Cash’s life.

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Mayberry Humor Across the U. S. A.

Mayberry Humor Across the U. S. A. by Jeanne Robertson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book! Jeanne Robertson is a former Miss North Carolina and Miss Congeniality in the Miss America Pageant. She is also 6 feet 2 inches and a huge TAGS" (The Andy Griffith Show) fan. If you enjoy humor and/or TAGS, then you will love this book!

I bought this book at a used book store and had never seen it even though I love TAGS. Here is a link for one her YouTube videos.

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